The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-01-29
Baltimore and Its Criminal Glass.
From the Baltimore Sur of Tuesday.

From the Baltimore Sun Of Tuesday.
There is single question at issue between
Mr.. Cowen and this paper, and it is quite
necessary TO follow him through his mile long
address to us to ascertain what it is. He has
affirmed that this city is ruled by its criminal
class, and we have denied the truth of that
statement. He parades the names of men
appointed, here and at Washington, to offices
which have absolutely nothing to do with the
administration of our laws or the preservation
of peace and order, as evidence OF the asser-
| ton that crime is in the ascendant, while we
have pointed out the courts and grand juries,
whose functions it is to investigate and punish
crime, and both of which Mr.. Cowen and his
co-workers approve, as evidence of the fact
that crime and its influences cannot be SO
fragrant as he has pictured them, in the face
of these tribunals arrayed against them. We
add to the courts the municipal authorities
represented by the mayor and the officials
having Immediately in charge the financial
! interests of the city, and we assert that the
man who really believes that they are control
| led by criminals or managed in their interest
must surely be afflicted with midsummer mad
ness. The reign of law and order and peace
and business prosperity in Mr.. Governs view
means nothing, and he even refuses to discuss
such transparent fallacies, dismissing so much
| L
under the Tweed regime. Mr.. Cowen per-
fectly well knows that there is no room for
such comparison, either in the condition of
the two cities or the administration of their
affairs Under the Tweed rule the world
knows that the bench was packed with bribed
Judges, and that Sweeney, Conover and their
partners in crime filed the city offices and
robbed the city treasury; that justice was
bought and sold like sheep in the shambles,
and that from mayor to tidewaiter the NUM-
| cipal administration was rotten Mr..
Cowen tries to make the city of Baltimore.
But let him name the judge who, in this city,
violates his trust in any particular, or the of
fetal who has thrust his arms to the elbows
in the city treasury. 1t seems to us the
sheerest nonsense to discuss this question, for
it is impossible for sane men to differ in re-
gard to it. The bench, the juries, the NUM-
cipal government, the condition of business,
public and private, the security to life and
property, all of which are supposed by most
men to be the factors in good government,
are all beyond the reproach of any class of
our people except those who ''rush i'm where
wiser and more candid men would hesitate to
tread We regret not to be able to point out
to those who share Mr.. Governs opinion of
Baltimore, no matter where they hail from,
nearer and far more pertinent parallel to
New York. There the men who asserted the
criminal rule and named the criminals did
something more than vex the ears of news
paper readers to rid their city of the incubus
of shame they so loudly proclaimed. They
first made sure of their facts and then went
before grand juries and had indictments
found; they prosecuted in the courts and con-
victed the felons, and thus convinced the
world that there was something more in their
charges than chronic distortion of vision or
disappointment political aspirations. Con-
spiracy to defraud whole community at the
polls and the malfeasance of election officers,
to say nothing of open or covert fraud at the
polls in direct violation of election laws, are
very grave offenses, and need only to be
proved to be punished. Why are the courts
and juries and Mr. Cowen ''silent still, and
silent ALL except in stump speeches and
grand jury reports, when it is charged ''su
pervisors appoint none but Jail birds and
tramps," and the city is under the rule of
criminals? The crime and the criminals who
rule US are ali known, the courts open and
organized to convict when the crime is nFevc1
ed, but the prosecutor contents himself with !
references to SedeRi and Gomorrah and Sit
~SSg disconsoate ike Lot of old in the gates
I. biting the arrival of the destroying angels.
/. ~ Cover iaeans-1hat very bad characters
have gotten into the Democratic organization
and ought to be gotten rid of so far as their
pernicious influence extends to party affairs
in other words that the party long dominant
in the city and State has shared the fate of all
parties at all times and places-he simply re-
peats what we have frequently urged, and
what very many Democrats feel who do not
proclaim their superior virtues in the market
places, nor like the novice in political science
or the chicken just out of the shell, imagine
themselves the original discoveries and sole
proprietors of the universe, with all its mys-
teries and all its wisdom To strike down the
criminal class either by furnishing their often
ses or by the enactment of such laws as will
destroy their opportunity to cheat, so that in
tegrity of our elections may be assured, was
contended for by this paper long before Mr..
Cowen dawned upon us as our leading reform
err. We have advocated the most stringent
election Laws taat the xit.af uaa can dsEise.ss
and we shall not abate our efforts to rid the
party and the people Of the instruments
and the power to cheat its will. Indeed
we have gone even deeper into this subject
than Mr.. Cowen seems to follow, by denounc-
ing the agencies ut work which corrupt legis.
latures and councils, and make bosses posi-
BILE and Doodle politics profitable. The public
has at times had cause to suspect the corpor
ate hand at work in the running of elections
and the shaping of legislation, which after
the manner Of Mr.. Cowen, we will call the
hand of Esau, leaving him, who is so apt in
biblical illustration, to point out the twin
brother" But because our election laws
need reforming, and the Democratic party
needs purging ofits Criminals" ifyou please,
is that any reason for heralding to the world
that the city of Baltimore is ruled by the
criminal class? If Mr.. Cowen will pardon us
another reference to the authority he quotes
so glibly, we would suggest that parties, like
trees, are known by their fruits, and ought in
fairness to be so judged. There is room for
reform, certainly, but no sort of nece ssity to
tear parties and business up by the roots, to
depose one set of leaders only to install
others in their places who show by their in
temperate speech how unfit they are to lead
or to rule.